Part of Me
by best thing since cookies
Summary: See there's this place in me where your fingerprints still rest, your kisses still linger and your whispers softly echo. It's the place where a part of you will forever be a part of me." --Gretchen Kemp Sam/Naomi Post S2 finale.


_**Basically, I'm writing one-shots based on quotes and sayings that remind me of PP and a few other fandoms. It's an exercise to keep my mind writing when I'm not working on my "bigger" stories.**_

_"See there's this place in me where your fingerprints still rest, your kisses still linger and your whispers softly echo. It's the place where a part of you will forever be a part of me." --Gretchen Kemp_

Sam opened his door to find his ex-wife standing on his doorstep. It was raining, one of those rare Los Angeles thunderstorms that rattled the window panes and lit up the night sky. "Naomi, what's wrong?" he asked urgently when he realized that it wasn't just raindrops dripping down her face. He pulled her inside and grabbed the coverlet off the sofa. "God, where's your car?"

"You can't just do this to me," Naomi said passionately. "You filed, Sam. I didn't want this. I didn't know what I did wrong, and then--you can't just tell me that you're in love with me, Sam!"

Sam stepped back and watched his wife fall apart. "Even if it's true?" he asked quietly, her pain mirroring in his eyes.

Naomi threw her hands up. "I tried, Sam. I tried to be a good wife, a good partner. You are the one who left _me_." She suddenly rounded on him, forcing him to step back. "You aren't allowed to be in love with me!"

"It's about entitlement then?" Sam demanded, his temper flaring. "I'm not allowed to be in love with you but Duncan is? Dell is? Why do they have more right than me? The man whose life has always been about you. The man who helped raise our daughter." He turned away and paced back toward the front door. "Where is Maya?"

"She's staying the night with a friend," Naomi muttered. "I needed you to fight for me, Sam. You sat by so...indifferently during the divorce. I had to pick myself up and move on with you right beside me, existing and being happy. Do you know how hard that was? God dammit!" She sank to the floor and covered her face with her hands.

"I can't excuse what I did--or even explain it. It--It was something I needed to do to find myself."

"Yeah?" Naomi asked acidly. "What about what I need to do for _myself_?"

"Aren't you doing that?" he asked quietly.

Sam walked into the kitchen. Why was she there? She made her decision. The questions swirled in his mind as he pulled two bottles of water from the fridge.

Naomi couldn't pick herself up. She felt so drained and empty. She started when Sam kneeled next to her and offered her a bottle of water.

"When I married you, I was always thinking forever. When I divorced you, that forever I envisioned didn't disappear," he said quietly. "Naomi, you're a part of me. In everything I do, I consider you. When I was with--" He bowed his head and sighed. "It was your kisses, your touch. Can you not see that it's always been you?"

Naomi was sobbing in earnest. "I can't do this again," she repeated. "I'm moving on, trying to get away. The practice was what was holding us together. Why did you tell me that?"

Sam felt deeply sorry, but not for telling her the truth. Never for that. She was hurting, and he could have prevented it if he just kept his mouth shut. "There's more than the practice holding us together, baby," he said softly, cupping her chin. "I love you. That's never going to change. Not when we're old and bickering, not if you remarry. Because you saw me when no one else did. You make sure I have my inhaler while in the same breath yelling at me for being an idiot."

"I can't do this again." She stood up and looked at her kneeling husband. "I'm taking the job, and I'm moving on." She wiped her face and stood up straight. "Goodbye, Sam."

Sam fell back onto the floor and pulled his knees to his chest. His breath hitched and wouldn't come. Oh, God, where was his inhaler? The door slammed and Naomi was suddenly in front of him.

"You stupid, stupid man." She was pressing his inhaler into his hand and talking the whole time. "You were supposed to run after me." She kissed his forehead and his eyes, her hands roaming over his shoulders and his head. "If you leave me again, I will kill you."

Sam laughed and pulled her to him, his breath coming easier. "I will never leave you again, baby," he promised. His lips met hers, and he felt like he was home.


End file.
